Showing results by narrator "Samuel E. Hoke" in All Categories

The year is 1521, and Tenochtitlán burns. Wracked by plague and war, the majestic Aztec empire begins to crumble. As their beloved capital city falls to the ruthless Spaniards and hordes of vengeful tribes, the Aztecs make a last-ditch attempt to secretly save their heritage before it’s lost to the sands of time forever. Meanwhile, in the modern day, a string of high-profile robberies lays waste to archaeological sites and museums across Mesoamerica, overshadowed by a brewing nationalistic fervor which threatens to topple already fragile countries.

At the soaring height of the Golden Age of Piracy in the year 1717, a young boy takes to the high seas with a ragtag gang of marauders to seek his fortune. His mentor is none other than the infamous pirate lord Blackbeard, a cruel and cunning leader with ties to a priceless treasure that has been lost to time. But the boy saw the fortune with his own eyes – if only he can live long enough to tell the tale. The Lost Colony of Roanoke disappeared without a trace. Search parties arrived to find over a hundred colonists missing with nothing but a single enigmatic word left etched behind.

Welcome to a society governed through computer games! On New Earth, society is governed and conflicts are resolved in the arena of a fantasy computer game, Epic. If you win, you have the chance to fulfill your dreams; if you lose, your life both in and out of the game is worth nothing. When teenage Erik dares to subvert the rules of Epic, he and his friends must face the Committee. If Erik and his friends win, they may have the key to destroying the Committee's tyranny. But if they lose....

Charles L. Grant's town of Oxrun Station became real to horror fans (much like Lovecraft's Arkham and King's Castle Rock). While most of Grant's stories were contemporary, he did write a trilogy of "historical" novels placed in an earlier Oxrun. The Dark Cry of the Moon is a classic werewolf tale for fans of the old Universal and Hammer horror films. The emphasis is on character and atmosphere, not on gore. It is the second volume in Grant's acclaimed "historical horror" trilogy.

It’s 1646 BC, and Atlantis, the jewel of the ancient world, faces oblivion. A cataclysm is brewing—one which will wash over an empire at the very height of its power and shroud it in mystery forever. A resolute general is tasked with unravelling the gods’ ominous warnings, but nature is about to unleash devastation that will ripple across millennia. Perhaps even crushing the nascent concept of democracy before it can ever be born.

When a multinational games company recruit Tom, a smart, streetwise Dublin teenager, to get a team together and come to San Francisco to immerse themselves in a massive fantasy world, he thinks it is the job of his dreams. His challenge is to level up fast so as to eliminate an AI dragon that has gone rogue and is preventing the release of the game. As Tom comes closer to that goal, he starts to realize that the game is not what it seems, not least because a powerful crypto-currency company seem to have funded the creation of the game for their own purposes.

Jacob Riverson, Regina Whitetremor, and Serah Brightwaters have assembled the greatest army the Northern Wasteland has ever achieved, but it still may not be enough. The tyrant, Empress Morwen, has gathered all of the forces of the Southern Continent to invade, along with an army of airships and enslaved divine spirits. It is a battle that will determine the fate of all three worlds.

She is young, incredibly desirable - the virgin bride. He is young, incredibly brilliant - the devil's groom. They are genetically perfect, programmed to plant a seed of flesh, destined to breed a mutant life of overwhelming beauty and overwhelming evil. Evil which will emerge as the anti-human, evil which will use cold, sinister technology to wipe out the world - our world. Now, it is a matter of life and death. For them. For us. For humankind.

From the author of the Amazon best-seller The Soul Collector comes a real life story of terror and intrigue. When Edwin Gonzalez and Lillian Otero purchased the historic S.K. Pierce Victorian Mansion in Gardner, Massachusetts, in 2009, they scoffed at the ghostly legends surrounding the house. They didn't believe in ghosts. The house soon proved them wrong. By the fall of 2011, they were forced from their house, narrowly escaping with their lives.

Welcome to Starburst, a quiet seaside resort where the people of the future escape into the past, and only four things are certain.

Sometimes, in Bloomwood County, New Jersey, children go missing. Sometimes those children die. And sometimes, strange and alien shapes of night resurrect the bodies of those children for their own.

Charles L. Grant sets forth to take us across time and into a fantasy world to his remarkable little Connecticut town of Oxrun Station. There are new horrors on the loose to excite each listener.

The Soft Whisper of the Dead is the first of the Oxrun tales to be placed in other than a contemporary setting. The first in a trilogy of historical horror novels, it is the account of the evil Count Braslov's attempt to subjugate the Oxrun population to his vampiric will.

Since Jeff Talbot left the FBI, he's been investigating yard sales as a professional antiques picker. From furniture to books, from old clothes to broken toys, nothing escapes his keen eye for appraisal. But there is one item that he always keeps his knowing eyes particularly peeled to find: a one-of-a-kind French cabaret set commissioned by Napoleon for his love, Josephine. It is an item any collector would kill for....

Ex-FBI agent and antiques picker Jeff Talbot asks Lanny, a fellow picker, to scout out some antique majolica as a present for his wife—with no idea just how costly it will be. Lanny is a bit of a loner, but Jeff has always liked him. So it comes as a total shock when the young man is arrested for murdering an antiques dealer. Jeff learns that Lanny quarreled with the dealer after she sold two pieces of majolica she was supposed to hold for him—uncharacteristic of the kind, caring, and trustworthy man that Jeff knows.

Months after antiques picker and ex-FBI agent Jeff Talbot's beloved 1948 Chevy woodie was wrecked—the result of a killer trying to run Jeff off the road—it's finally restored. But when he and his butler go to pick it up at the shop, they discover the asphyxiated bodies of four men—including owner Louie Stella, a former informant from Jeff's FBI days. But what at first appears to be a terrible accident is soon ruled a homicide. Louie's son, Tony, is missing—and he's left behind an envelope, found inside the woodie.

Antiques picker and ex-FBI agent Jeff Talbot figured he was about to make a killing when Nathan Rose offered him all the antiques in his newly deceased aunt's house dirt cheap. What Jeff hadn't bargained for, however, was the bloodstain beneath one of the old pack rat's priceless rugs, indicating that the death of Verena Rose was no accident. But unlike the police, Jeff doesn't think that nephew Nathan is the culprit. Convinced the answer lies somewhere in the old woman's cluttered house, Jeff starts rummaging and unearths an antique marriage casket crammed with old letters.

Jeff Talbot is joining his fishing buddies for their annual trip. He is also trying to coordinate the listing and transportation of his latest haul of antiques. When he arrives at the Northwest Territory Bait and Tackle shop for supplies, he joins his fishing friend, the Judge. Together they find their friend and shop owner, Bill Rhodes, murdered. Throughout the fishing trip weekend, Jeff finds himself assisting the local sheriff's department in the investigation.

In his introduction to the book, best-selling author Loren D. Estleman says "It's hard work being Deborah Morgan". A multiple award-winning author in both the mystery and Western arenas, Morgan has collected here in Junction a selection of stories guaranteed to show you why.

Since Jeff Talbot left the FBI, he's been investigating yard sales as a professional antiques picker. From furniture to books, from old clothes to broken toys, nothing escapes his keen eye for appraisal. But there is one item that he always keeps his knowing eyes particularly peeled to find: a one-of-a-kind French cabaret set commissioned by Napoleon for his love, Josephine. It is an item any collector would kill for. So when it's about to be auctioned off - and rival collectors start turning up dead - there are plenty of suspects to choose from.